Post-production for reality TV is happening on a massive scale down under. WTFN, a leading production company based in Melbourne, Australia, is known for its popular, award-winning reality series “Paramedics,” “Emergency,” and “Police Strike Force,” among others. Produced and distributed for television networks in multiple countries, these intense, fast-paced reality shows are difficult to film and even more challenging to edit.
“Paramedics” is a gripping series that follows the life-or-death activities of Australian ambulance crews. The show utilizes 16 to 22 cameras pre-rigged in ambulances, on paramedics, in helicopters, motorcycles, and drones, filming 24/7 with a rotating crew over an eight-month period. Managing the sheer amount of footage and metadata to review and edit under tight deadlines can be as harrowing as the show itself. And that’s just one WTFN series. The others are just as demanding.
WTFN’s shows require reliable, secure, flexible, and highly efficient post-production workflows to handle the huge volume of material. To help manage the prodigious task of editing each episode, WTFN relies on Avid. In the latest installment of the “Avid Tech Talk” podcast series, WTFN Technical Director Robert Pitman talks about the process for posting “Paramedics” and other shows with Avid Senior Director of Partners and Alliances Ray Thompson.